Firsts
by Freya'sDaughter
Summary: Astrid hasn't told Hiccup everything that happened on Drago's ship. When the truth finally comes out, the day after their wedding, the two struggle to resolve their differences amid the threat of physical danger. Spoilers for HTTYD 2. Slight rewrite (primarily the first chapter) of an earlier completed fic.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N**__: Hi! Welcome. If this is your first time reading any of my stuff, I have a huge favor to ask. Click on my name, the one that takes you to my profile page, and read my three oneshots, "Wedding in the Mead Hall," "Wedding Night," and "The Morning After." They form the prologue to this story, explaining the scenario and introducing some of the themes I want to explore. I'll wait here until you get back. ::cue theme from Jeopardy!:: …Welcome back. Did you read them? No? Did you at least read the first one? Good. Ok. _

_There were three main things I wanted to accomplish in writing this story._

_1) Get some experience as a fiction writer. I LOVE fiction, and I've read millions of words and hundreds of novels. I've written papers and a doctoral thesis but have never felt either a strong need to write fiction or an urge to share my work with anyone. Putting your work up for people to read is really, really scary. However, I really do want constructive feedback on the language, the characters, pacing, etc. I'm writing another HTTYD fic right now and if you think you write better than I do, I want your beta services._

_The only thing that broke my conviction to never publish anything was:_

_2) HTTYD 2. I fell, hard. I adored the characters, and my brain believes they're real. I wanted to stay in that world as long I could. That said:_

_3) A lot of the Hiccstrid fics are over-the-top waffy. I think that all fic is wish fulfillment to some degree, my own included, but the characters in the movie were so down-to-earth and playful and honest with each other that I wanted to preserve that. And the fics that aren't waffy have the characters dance around each other for 50,000 words and I don't have the writing chops or the guts to do that. So I decided to write a short piece that preserved their relationship while exploring my favorite "what if": I noticed that Hiccup was very remorseful about running away from his father since his determination to be a peacemaker arguably was what got Stoick killed. However, Astrid also made a REALLY stupid tactical error in what she said to Drago on his boat, yet we don't see her being bothered by it afterward. The Astrid from the first movie is a total perfectionist. A mistake like that would gnaw at her. The idea started to grow in my head that this could be a source of conflict for them, and in the fatigue of coping with the aftermath of the battle I figure they might be prone to make some very poor decisions. Fatigue kills, people. Plus I have an evil whump/hc streak and also I wanted to see Astrid being a BAMF in defense of her boy. So there you go. _

**Firsts**

"Morning, milady," Hiccup said, and then he kissed her. His lips were warm, the skin slightly chapped from having gone twelve hours without touching any drink but mead.

Astrid brought her hand up to caress the back of his head. Her fingers moved in his hair, massaging his scalp underneath in the way she knew he liked. She returned the kiss, tenderly searching out his mouth with her tongue and breathing out in amused satisfaction as she tasted the leftover flavors of their wedding feast.

She turned her head away suddenly to yawn—it turned into a mild scowl when she felt dried drool crack on her cheek. She didn't remember falling asleep. No doubt everyone at their wedding had believed they would be up all night, but Hiccup had passed out right away, only half out of his clothes, and her last memory of the evening was of her own gratitude that he didn't snore.

"How can you keep calling me that?" she asked. "You've seen me asleep. I don't look like a lady, I look like a troll."

"Sure do," he replied. "But if I said that, you would punch me, and my ribs still hurt."

Astrid's eyebrows went up. "I think you just did. Say something, that is."

He grinned at her devilishly, practically taunting her to injure him, then buried his face in her neck and nuzzled until she was breathless from laughter. She finally managed to push him back and he held himself up over her on his elbows, an arm on either side, a pleased expression on his face like he was congratulating himself that he'd teased Astrid Hofferson (Haddock, now) and still lived.

"But," she continued, "because we did just get married…"

Her finger traced the bandages around his ribcage, residual proof of the danger of small mistakes. A couple of weeks ago he'd slipped on some of the ice still atop the Mead Hall, too tired to pay attention to what his feet were doing. He might not be called Berk's walking disaster anymore, but it appeared that trouble always found him one way or another.

She was beginning to understand how Stoick had probably felt for most of Hiccup's life. You couldn't let this boy out of your sight for a second.

"…I guess I can let you off the hook for that one…"

She pulled his head back down by his braids, and kissed him again, starting with his lips and working her way over all the pillow lines on his face.

"…but don't get used to it." She tapped his nose as a warning of worse things, and he nodded at her solemnly.

"I promise."

They made love, then. It did not go how Astrid had expected, even though she'd been driven crazy for ages by the thought of finally getting to touch all of him. The elders at her ceremonial bath had told her how wonderful things were when you were lucky enough to love your spouse, but they'd left a lot of things out.

They'd told her it might hurt the first time, but not how much. They'd told her to make sure he touched her well beforehand but hadn't suggested a way for him to hold her without his neck or shoulder or arm getting sore. They'd told her he would be done quickly, as men always were their first time. They hadn't told her how frustrating it would be for her when it was her turn and he repeatedly misunderstood her directions.

Finally she said she'd had enough (she had, but not in a good way); she pushed him onto his back and pressed into his side, pinning him down with her bare leg. She leaned her face into the damp, freckled skin of his shoulder and tried not to breathe. If she didn't breathe, she couldn't cry. She was _so _tired. She'd slept only a few hours and her eyes hurt.

"I'm sorry," he offered. "We'll try again later, I promise."

"It's okay, babe," she said, her voice muffled against him.

They napped for awhile, and she felt a bit better. They went downstairs. Hiccup stirred the embers in the hearth and set up a kettle to make tea. Astrid had pulled her night shift back on, and Hiccup was in his trousers and prosthetic. They weren't totally comfortable with each other yet, and idea of sitting naked not ten feet from his father's sleeping quarters felt somehow weird and disrespectful.

He combed his fingers through his hair before removing the kettle from the hearth and pouring the tea. "We should eat something, too. There's stuff to do today. We still need to feed our dragons, and last week I promised Hoark I'd check out his roof again. He doesn't like how we redid the shingles."

Astrid smiled at him slyly, determined that they'd make use of the time she'd purchased for them at axepoint. "Are you sure? 'Cause I could swear I heard him telling Gobber yesterday that sure, he could wait two more days, while the chief and his new wife got acquainted. Well…more acquainted."

He blushed, but then his brows furrowed. "What? I didn't hear anything about this…"

"I got us two days to ourselves! Gobber and Spitelout will take care of everything, I made sure of it. Aren't you excited? Two days of just you, and me, and nothing to do…"

His expression flattened.

"I might be, if you hadn't, you know, gone behind my back."

The tone suggested he was hurt, and a little bit offended.

Astrid clenched her teeth in irritation. She was still tired, she hadn't eaten since the night before, and she felt slightly resentful that her husband's first time in bed had ended the way it was supposed to and hers hadn't.

Ever since her first, ecstatic ride on dragonback, five years ago, they'd been friends. Shocked at finally having someone his age who believed in him so completely, he'd told her things he still wasn't comfortable telling his father, or even Fishlegs. As they had grown older, only Astrid had learned just how much the idea of becoming chief terrified him; how the thought that he might make an error that could get someone besides himself hurt or killed made him want to throw up, and how the bull-headedness of Berk's residents drove him absolutely crazy.

As chief he was hiding it well, so far, and the villagers loved him. They had for a long time. But Astrid knew his face better than anyone else, and she had seen the strain beginning to show. So she hadn't thought twice about just going ahead and making sure they would have a couple of days off.

And now he was throwing the gesture back in her face, accusing her of disloyalty.

"So?" she protested. "Do I need to run everything I do by you beforehand? Are you going to be one of those chiefs who has to know everything that goes on, all the time? You'll use up Berk's goodwill pretty fast, at that rate. If the villagers had wanted an overbearing muttonhead, they'd have pushed your dad to pick Snotlout Jorgenson."

His eyes narrowed at the comparison. "You know I'm not like that, Astrid, come on."

"You're not? Then why are you so mad?"

"Because you're my wife," he said, a little too loudly, and she cringed, wondering who this person was and what he'd done with Hiccup. "We're supposed to tell each other things."

"What, don't I have a right to my own thoughts?"

"You know that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about. Ever since the battle, you've been…weird, all hovering and protective. Whenever one of our friends makes any reference to Eret, or to Drago's ship, you freeze like you've been hit by a Speed Stinger. What the heck happened on that boat that you're not telling me?"

Her heart froze.

_No. _

_No no no no no. _She couldn't put it off anymore. She was stuck.

Then again, so was he.

She took a deep breath. They had five years of trust saved up in their relationship bank, and she was about to drain it empty.

She said, "You already know that the gang and I had set out to rescue you from Drago, and that we had gotten captured, and escaped and hid in the dragon traps until the battle started. But I didn't tell you why he attacked Valka's mountain then, or why he went to Berk afterward."

Hiccup looked at her quizzically. "He was crazy and building a dragon army to take over the world?"

She shook her head. "No. I mean, I guess he would have eventually...you know he's probably not dead, right? Megalomaniacs with dragons don't go down that easily, and we never saw a body."

"Don't remind me," Hiccup said sourly. "We still have too much to fix before we can take him on again." He took an angry sip of tea, wishing suddenly that it was mead even though he hated it.

"…Anyway," continued Astrid, "there was a reason he attacked when he did."

She looked down at her mug, unable to meet Hiccup's eyes. "It was because of me. I tried to intimidate him into letting us go. I told him we had a whole island of dragon riders, with tracking dragons, and I told him about you, that you were the greatest dragon master the world had ever seen—"

Hiccup choked on his tea.

"—and that if he didn't let us go, you'd blast through there on your Night Fury and destroy his whole armada."

Hiccup barked out a laugh and shook his head. "Yeah, that was…um, maybe not the best decision you've ever made. But it doesn't matter, it's over now. So…"

She jerked her head up and stared into his face.

"_So…_I made him aware of a potential threat, much sooner than he would have found out on his own. If we'd just done what your dad said, hunkered down until he came, we would have been prepared. If I'd done what he said and led the others back to Berk, he wouldn't have captured us in the first place. And then I went and made it so, so much worse, because then I ensured he attacked when Berk was completely unprepared and defenseless. All those homes destroyed—it was my fault."

"We all made mistakes that day, Astrid," Hiccup tried to reassure her. "I more than anyone. Do you think I don't lie awake at night, wishing that for once I'd listened to my father? Beating myself up over and over, wondering whether, if I'd just done what I was told, he might still be alive?"

He paused for a moment. "What I don't understand is why you'd keep it from me, or why you'd think it was such a big deal."

"I…thought you might be upset. I was afraid that every time you looked at me, you'd think, 'if she'd only kept her mouth shut, I might still have my dad. If only Astrid had thought more about what she was saying, we might not be rebuilding Berk right now.'"

Hiccup's face went deadly serious, his eyes widened and then he frowned at her, disturbed.

Astrid said, "I thought it might be too painful for you, after everything else. I was afraid you might push me away."

Hiccup rested his head in his hands for a long minute. When he looked up and spoke, his voice was strained.

"You waited until after our wedding to tell me this." He frowned again, and blinked twice. "Hold on! Were you _ever _going to tell me this?"

She gulped. "Probably. I wanted to, so many times, but we were so busy…"

Hiccup stood up abruptly from the table. He started to pace, pulling at the braids Astrid had woven, as though he wished he could yank them straight from his head.

"Astrid…I'm not mad about what you said to Drago. Yeah, it was stupid and reckless. Believe me, I know stupid and reckless better than anyone. But I can't believe you'd hide something that you thought might …break us up? That you'd essentially lie to me until we were stuck together. That's so…unfair."

"Unfair?" replied Astrid, incensed. "What about the disease incident here on Berk three years ago, when you decided to do what you thought was best for us, without asking me?"

"That was different," Hiccup returned, "we weren't together yet, not officially. And I wasn't hiding something I thought was _bad. _It was for your own good, I didn't want you to be stuck taking care of me."

"But you didn't _ask,_" said Astrid.

"It's different!" Hiccup yelled. "I didn't wait until we were _married _to spring a potential deal-breaker on you….argh!" He doubled over, clenching his hands into claws as though he'd like to rip something in two. Astrid didn't think…no, she _knew_ he wouldn't hurt her, but she'd never seen him angry with her like this and she was frightened.

He stood up and glared at her; he started pacing again, and gestured at her, the movements mirroring the sharp cadence of his voice.

"And what's worse, you didn't tell me because you assumed I couldn't handle it, that I wouldn't forgive you! Do you trust me so little? That you think I would stop loving you because you did something stupid on the same level as any of us have done? Do you look down on me so much, like I'm the kind of cold-hearted jerk you need to keep things from? I thought you felt safe with me, that you could tell me everything!"

"I—" she didn't know what to say.

Hiccup stared at her, breathing heavily, then pivoted away on his false leg and clomped up the stairs, the metal of the prosthetic hitting the wood so hard it sounded like it was making dents. Astrid could hear him banging around up in their room, and when he came back down, he had pulled a tunic on that clashed with his trousers. He slammed his right foot into the boot by the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

"When will you be back?"

"Later." He stormed out, banging the door behind him.

Astrid sat without moving for a few minutes, panting, squeezing her eyes shut to force back the tears. Finally she gathered her wits and returned to their room. She sat down on the bed, the one in which they had just recently shared their bodies with each other. The sheets were still warm.

_You've really messed everything up now, haven't you. Frigga only knows if he'll still want you when he gets back. _

She threw herself face first into her pillow and screamed.

**Don't worry, they'll be okay. Eventually.**


	2. Chapter 2

As Hiccup marched down the hill from his house—_their _house—it occurred to him that he had no idea where he planned to go or what he intended to do. His only instinct had been to get away, as far away as possible, from the place that still smelled like his father, the place where his new wife and—he had thought—best friend had kneed him in the guts. He was still intensely tired. The few hours of rest they'd gotten last night hadn't erased the sleep debt they'd built up over the last few weeks. Though he hadn't eaten since their wedding meal, the thought of swallowing food made him feel as though he might be sick.

_The forge_. He had left his wingsuit at the forge to make adjustments. That was a week ago, and he hadn't flown more than the briefest amount necessary to exercise Toothless since then, what with the wedding preparations and the constant demands from the villagers. That was it: he would get his wingsuit and his dragon and _escape _from Berk for a few hours. For a short time, he'd be free from the awkward attentions of his mother and the bawdy well-wishes of his friends and the painful slaps on the back and exclamations of "that's ma boy" from Gobber.

Berkians approached him at intervals as he descended the hill toward his destination. They weren't expecting to see him out of the house so soon, and they were nonplussed by his gruff and purposeful dismissals. They were accustomed to a cheery and patient young chief. Little did they know how hard he had worked to keep smiling for their benefit, how whenever he thought he had a few seconds alone, he slumped against whatever wall or tree was nearby and covered his eyes as long as he dared.

Hiccup himself didn't know that the day before the wedding, Astrid and the twins had caught him napping inadvertently behind the Mead Hall after the midday meal, and that the girl had threatened them with everything short of banishment to keep them from trying to see how many Terrible Terrors they could stack on top of his head without waking him.

He heard clanging as he came near the forge, and cursed; Gobber was working inside. Well, maybe he'd have his eye shield down and wouldn't see or hear Hiccup as he snuck into his back room to grab the wingsuit. His luck held; he timed the steps of his prosthetic with the blows of the smith's hammer and he was changed and back out in just a couple of minutes.

He crept around the outskirts of the village and reached the training arena where he'd put Toothless in his stall the night before. He hardly ever put him there because the Night Fury hated it, but he hadn't wanted him to get too curious about what might happen inside the house.

"Let's go, bud," he whispered, attaching the saddle and clicking the flight rig into place. The other Academy members' dragons weren't in their stalls, except for Stormfly. He stuck his head outside the arena and scanned the sky for his friends but everything appeared clear. He mounted Toothless and with a few wing flaps they were airborne and soaring above Berk.

"Where shall we go?" he asked. "Itchy Armpit? We never did finish exploring it last time." It was a two-hour flight to the east, just far enough away to let him clear his head. They'd poke around some and be back before the evening meal.

The weather was clear and beautiful as they cruised over the water, coming close enough to the surface to tease the pods of Thunderdrums below. Toothless veered up abruptly and did a few barrel rolls, overjoyed to finally be free of Berk and alone with his beloved rider once again.

Hiccup sat up straight in the saddle and stretched his arms behind his back, taking in deep breaths of the cool salt air. He felt better already. He just needed to fly. That was the ticket. He began to wonder if he hadn't overreacted to Astrid's earlier confession, and guilt started to pull at his insides.

_No, _he thought; he was still upset with her. She had hovered over him for weeks, when all the while she had been keeping secrets from him, both political and personal. They had been together for so long by now; he thought they were beyond hiding things like that from each other. He'd only just started to come to terms with the shock of discovering the secret kept from him by his own mother—namely, that she was still alive. It seemed as though both of the most important women in his life had hidden things from him that he should have had the right to know about.

It hurt, perhaps more than it would have if sleep deprivation wasn't still pressing on his nerves.

Toothless sensed Hiccup wasn't paying attention to him anymore, and after the neglect of the previous week, the dragon felt offended by his rider's continued disregard. He dove for the water, forcing Hiccup out of his thoughts to flip the foot pedal to compensate for the change in direction.

"Sorry, bud. Even out here, I can't seem to get away from Berk." Hiccup sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. His helmet stayed attached to Toothless's saddle; somehow today he needed to feel as free as possible, with the wind blowing through his hair and the morning sun warming his skin. He patted the dragon's shoulder. "Come on, let's get up high and do some loops, chase some Timberjacks. Okay?"

His scaly companion huffed his approval and together they soared higher, higher, until the wave peaks looked tiny below.

0000

Before long, the misshapen, tree-covered piece of land whimsically titled Itchy Armpit appeared on the horizon. Instead of landing directly, they circled it a few times, getting a better sense of its shape. There was a bare, high spit of land on the edge of it opposite from the place where Hiccup had crash-landed with Toothless—where he had related to Astrid his fateful conversation with his father.

_Shoot. Why did I choose to come back here? Oh, well._

Hiccup made one last turn on dragonback over the new area, clicked the tail fin into landing position and prepared to jump, to glide to the ground like he had over Eret's dragon-trapping ship. He released the straps for his arm wings in advance. It wasn't that far down; he'd hit the front button on his flight suit to release the fin on his back, spread his arms, and land on the grass-covered projection of earth below. He'd roll if he had to, and Toothless would flap down next to him. There were some trees and rocks further back but the clear area should be big enough for the both of them.

Upon waking several hours later, he would remember that he hadn't ever tried to land that way before. He would also remember that he hadn't really _landed_ on Eret's ship so much as he had grabbed the sail and slid down. He would remember being hit by a sudden gust of wind coming up the cliff, and remember his panic upon hitting the button on his chest and realizing that he hadn't reattached the spring coil to his stabilizing back fin the last time he'd worked on his suit.

But none of those thoughts went through his tired brain at the point in time where they might have been useful.

"Here we go, bud. Watch this!"

He released the safety cable from his saddle, unlocked his feet and pushed off.

0000

Awareness came back to Astrid slowly, as though she were swimming up to consciousness through heavy liquid. Her eyelids opened painfully, the lids tight and crusty and unwilling to release her from her dreamless sleep. She stiffly pushed herself up from the pillow, grimacing as she smeared the remnants of dried drool and tears from her face with her forearm.

_Ugh, what happened. Did I fall asleep crying? Where's Hiccup?_

The memory of their fight slammed into her brain then and she wished she were asleep again. Hiccup was gone; he was angry with her, and she had no idea what he'd say to her when he got back. She hoped that hiding miscalculated attempts to intimidate insane dragon generals didn't count as grounds for divorce. Besides, Hiccup loved her. He didn't throw the phrase out frequently, not as often as she'd like, really, but when he did say it, he always sounded like he meant it. If he could forgive his own mother for choosing dragons over him and letting him believe she was gone forever, he could forgive Astrid for what she'd hidden from him. She hoped.

She pondered her options for the rest of the day's plans. Number one: she could go after Hiccup, as she often did for various reasons: curiosity, worry, just plain wanting to share something with him without waiting. _Not the best choice right now, probably. He said he'd be back later. I'll wait for him to cool off. _

Number two: she could hide inside all day and pretend nothing had happened, hope the villagers hadn't seen Hiccup tromping through Berk with a hurricane in his eyes. That idea was rejected as well, on the grounds that she hated being confined and with signs of her husband everywhere in the house, she'd likely become frustrated with rage and boredom and break something. That would be bad, especially since the house was filled with wedding gifts. She could head for the woods, instead, chop down some—no, the forest was probably filled with people doing the same thing, not to blow off steam but to rebuild their houses. And they'd ask questions, questions for which she didn't have an answer or wasn't ready to provide one.

Questions like _Where's your sweet husband, lassie? _

And _Left your beau exhausted in bed, did you? Atta girl. _

Or _All you all right? You look like you've been crying. _

She particularly didn't want to answer that one.

_Argh_.

She finally decided to clean herself up, get dressed, and go fishing with Stormfly. She poured some water into the washbasin in the corner of the bedroom and splashed her face, cleaning away the signs of her recent exhausted meltdown. She wet her hair, combed her fingers through it, and rebraided it. The new wedding ring felt odd and foreign on her finger as she worked her long blond strands into their usual configuration.

_I should put my hair up, I suppose. I'm married now. _She hesitated awhile, a bit unwilling to alter the style she'd lived with and been accustomed to ever since her signs of womanhood had appeared several years ago. Finally she reached for some pins and secured the braid in a thick knot at the back of her head. It felt heavy and strange, and the air was cold on her freshly bare neck.

She put on her usual clothes. There was no way in Hel she was going to start wearing long skirts. No one could ride a dragon properly in garb like that. She went downstairs in her stocking feet and opened the door to peer outside.

The sun was high overhead; she must have slept through until near midday. The villagers would soon call off their rebuilding efforts for a noon meal at the Mead Hall.

Her stomach growled and she remembered she hadn't eaten in more than half a day. If Stormfly heard it during their fish foraging expedition, she'd land and cough up a meal for Astrid that would be unpalatable in the extreme. She'd have to turn it down, and she didn't think she could bear disappointing another loved one today. She ducked back into the house and rummaged through the downstairs kitchen area for food. The villagers had been generous; in the days leading up to the wedding, they'd queued up to the house, bearing food as well as gifts, food they likely couldn't afford to part with but that the young couple hadn't the heart to refuse. Some of it they had planned to return in secret to the needier families of Berk.

The Ingermans were doing fine, though, and Fishlegs' mother had brought them some of her famous bread. She pulled a hunk of it from a wrapped loaf and broke off a piece of yak cheese from the yellow round stored in the icebox. Still chewing, she exited the Chief's cottage and wound her way through the village up to the dragon stalls at the Training ring, doing her best to avoid the areas where she'd be noticed. As she filled her stomach, slowly sauntering across the grass in the sun, she began to feel more hopeful. They'd be okay. Hiccup would come back, having worked off the edge of his anger; they'd talk things out, really talk, as they often wanted to but never seemed to be able to find the time for, and everything would be great. They could make love again. She'd figure out a better way to manage that first position they'd tried. It would be fun, and this time they'd just cuddle and fall asleep without arguing.

The Deadly Nadder greeted her with a delighted squawk as she approached her stall at the back of the arena. The heavy, solidly opaque barred doors of the dragons' enclosures had been replaced with lighter ones, with a lattice of openings that the dragons could see through. It made them much more willing to be penned in when necessary.

"Hey, girl! Sorry I'm late. I bet you're hungry." She stroked the Nadder's nose through the openings and hauled open the door. The birdlike blue-and-gold reptile hopped forward, bumping Astrid's face and torso gently and repeatedly with her huge head.

"I know, I know. I want to get out of here, too." Astrid retrieved Stormfly's tack from the storage area and buckled it on. Once they were free of the training ring, the dragon took off like a rocket toward the open water surrounding Berk, making her petite rider hold on for dear life.

They swooped and dove over the ocean, Stormfly gleefully collecting fish in her huge mouth and gulping them down whole. Astrid often tried to make a game out of it, seeing if she could spot the biggest, juiciest fish before the dragon could; she usually lost badly. There was no comparison between the dragon's sense of smell and hers, let alone in their respective abilities to differentiate the movement of the silvery fish from that of the ocean waves.

She spied a familiar speck in the distance. As it came closer, her stomach twisted a little in distaste. It was Valka, riding Cloudjumper. Apparently Astrid wasn't the only one on Berk to forgo the busy midday meal gathering.

The small blond girl shoved back the temptation to fly away before being hailed. They could probably escape relatively easily—Stormfly was one of the fastest dragons on Berk. But she didn't really want to start off her marriage to Hiccup by being overtly rude to his mother, even though the older woman's unveiled eagerness to reconnect with Hiccup sometimes gave Astrid the creeps. _I don't mind that you want to talk to him, but do you have to touch his hair all the time like that? Bleh. _

She resigned herself to endure at least one of the awkward conversations she'd been trying to avoid.

"Good day, Astrid!" Valka called in her still slightly uncomfortable-sounding brogue. In the first days after returning to Berk to stay, she had been frequently tongue-tied, as though twenty years of living primarily with dragons had locked away many of the words she used to know. The first time Astrid had heard her communicate with her own dragon vocally, her jaw had dropped nearly to the ground in surprise; she hadn't known human beings could _make _sounds like that. Though she had found her fiancé's mother's presence disconcerting, she hadn't been able to avoid asking the woman to teach her some Nadder sounds. Astrid was always hungry for any advantage over her friends' training methods and she had been desperate to find something the two women could bond over besides their shared preoccupation with Berk's kind-hearted young chief.

"Fair day for a fish catch, isn't it," Astrid returned brightly, projecting her voice over the sound of the waves and the breeze that was starting to blow.

"For sure. Cloudjumper loves the cod that swim through this area." Valka put her hand up to shade her eyes and scanned the horizon behind Astrid. "Where's Hiccup? We weren't actually expecting you two out today at all."

"He's…off somewhere," Astrid said vaguely. "He said he'd be back later."

Valka frowned. "He what? Who leaves their newly wedded wife behind, the day after the wedding?" She squinted across the distance between her and Astrid. The girl looked down into the water, pretending to be looking for Thunderdrums.

"Something happened, didn't it." Astrid didn't say anything in response, but the way her eyes shifted back and forth must have betrayed her, because Valka whispered something to Cloudjumper and then called, "May I come aboard?"

Astrid gave her a confused look. What on earth was she planning? Before she could open her mouth to clarify, Valka sailed Cloudjumper over Astrid's head, and ever so nimbly jumped off, landing on Stormfly's back behind her and pushing her forward in the saddle.

"Easy, girl!" Astrid braced herself for Stormfly to panic and throw them both into the sea, but the dragon just chirped a bit and kept up her fish search, not appearing to care a whit that a relatively strange person had just mounted her in midair without her rider's explicit permission. She glared at the back of her blue friend's head. _Traitor. Valka's a real dragon witch, isn't she._

"All right," said Valka. "Why are you two separated, so soon after your ceremony? You should be at home, stuffing yourselves silly on seed cakes and getting tipsy on mead. And practicing for making a future heir of Berk."

Astrid's growled to herself at the impertinence of the question. It was none of Valka's business what she and Hiccup were or weren't doing, and why. Still, she was trapped here with her mother-in-law, on her own dragon, no less, and she had to say something.

"Let's just say," she suggested, turning in the saddle, "that I found out that some secrets have a date after which they're better off remaining secrets."

Valka's face went deadpan; her eyebrows flattened and she blinked slowly a few times, her long eyelashes brushing her cheeks.

Even after twenty years of hard living, alone with dragons, she was still stunningly beautiful. It was easy to see where Hiccup had gotten some of his looks.

"Yes," she responded finally, "I suppose that's so." There was an awkward beat of silence as the two women regarded each other. "Still," she said, "you might want to go after him. Cloudjumper smelled a storm coming; he let me know this morning, and he's almost never wrong. Did Hiccup take any supplies, in case he got stranded somewhere?"

"No," said Astrid, the first hint of worry tickling the inside of her stomach. "…he'll be fine, I'm sure. He was…very determined to get away for awhile, and I've been around him so much recently, I want to give him some space. He's resourceful and usually observant. I'm sure he'll notice the weather and head back before nightfall."

Valka looked skeptical. "Well, if you're sure. He's seemed very distracted lately, and clumsy. Did you both sleep last night?" Astrid nodded. "Good." She whistled for Cloudjumper and transferred back to her own saddle before Astrid was even quite sure how she'd done it.

"By the way," called Valka before turning back toward Berk, "you're both invited over for supper tonight, if you want to come. I've been staying with Gobber, you know, and he's always said how much he loves my meatballs. I'm making them special for him."

"Um, yeah," Astrid replied, forcing a straight face. "Sure. We'll be there." She waved her mother-in-law off and giggled into her hand. She'd smelled the sheep kebabs Valka had prepared for the wedding feast; the odor she remembered didn't bode well for the upcoming experience of the woman's meatballs. Stoick had absolutely married Hiccup's mom for her looks and her feisty spirit.

"Okay," she pestered Stormfly, "three more fish. Then we're going home. Can't have you putting on weight; Hiccup will start kicking our asses in dragon racing. And my neck's about to sunburn from this stupid new hairdo."

0000

Toothless landed on the grassy cliffside field without incident, the smoothness of his landing belying his panic regarding his rider. Almost as soon as Hiccup jumped, the dragon had known something was terribly wrong; the boy hadn't opened his back fin, and a sudden gust of wind had taken him into the trees at the far side of the open spit.

The Night Fury raced into the forest, looking around wildly for signs of reddish hair or torn leather. He hooted into the silence, hoping desperately to hear a response that would mean his friend was conscious and able to speak. Nothing. Toothless let out a fearful snort and kept looking, breathing in the air of the woods for Hiccup's scent.

Finally he did smell something, but the familiarity of it was most unwelcome. He'd smelled it after the battle with the nasty dragon that ate dragons, and all the way back to Berk afterward. He'd smelled it a few times since then, also, and he'd grown to detest and fear it. It usually meant no flying, and being pushed away from Hiccup by those close to him. It meant—

There. He was crumpled on the ground between a thick tree and a large, moss-covered boulder. Toothless nosed him gently, looking him over. Did he have all his parts still? He appeared to, but he wasn't moving, and Toothless had to listen very carefully to make sure he was breathing.

Not for the first time, the dragon nearly wished he hadn't broken the tail that Hiccup had made him for Snoggletog a few years ago: the tail that let him fly on his own. Of course, he preferred working in tandem with his beloved, skinny companion, but at times like the present he lamented his inability to return to Berk for help. Then again, it was quite far this time, and he wouldn't want to leave Hiccup alone like this. The dragons in heaven only knew what might live on this island, and whether it liked to eat humans.

He curled around his rider protectively, wondering when—and if—help would come. His boy's lady friend often followed them, her dragon's sharp nose always able to discover their whereabouts eventually, but Toothless knew from the way Hiccup had whispered to him in the ring that their departure was supposed to be a secret.

Overhead, clouds formed; the light coming through the trees grew flat.

0000

_A/N: I settled on the location and distance of Itchy Armpit based on how long I guessed Hiccup and Toothless might have been gone while Astrid won the dragon race and came after them. They did a lot of messing around in the air, but there was still the impression of a pretty sizable distance between them and Berk. I just replayed the first five minutes clip on Youtube to see if I could get a good look at the map, but I couldn't get a good idea of which cardinal direction they were facing or where Berk was relative to them. If anybody knows, tell me. BTW if you think Hiccup's accident is dumb, it's not. My dad made a seemingly small mistake once in assembling his hang glider; he set the center of gravity three inches too far back and when he took off, he stalled and crashed. Hiccup's lucky to be alive. The movie makes it clear that the wingsuit is a disaster waiting to happen._


	3. Chapter 3

Hiccup first became conscious of a dim, mottled gray-blackness all around. As his vision cleared, he began to make out scales and wing veins not far from his eyes. He was lying on his side, being sheltered by Toothless. That wasn't new at all. He had seen the inside of Toothless's wings before, in a variety of circumstances.

Unfortunately, the view usually meant something had gone haywire.

He decided to reach over with his hand, to lift up the edge of the covering wing to get a look outside. As he rolled forward, however, pain shot down his back and through every limb, and he was temporarily blinded by lights twinkling in front of his eyes. He would have cursed, but his brain appeared to have lost its ability to access his internal lexicon. He lay still, breathing as heavily as he dared, fighting back the nausea that had suddenly gripped his belly. With effort, he searched his immediate memories, trying to piece together what had happened to land him here (wherever here was), on the ground, under his dragon, unable to move.

Morning. Morning with Astrid. Awesome. Fighting with Astrid. Not so great. Then what? _Think. _Sun, waves, barrel rolls. Island. He didn't remember landing. He didn't remember landing…?

_Oh, gods_.

He coughed, feeling whatever had been almost healed in his ribcage re-damaged and sharp. He had decided, on a whim born of what he assumed was a total dissociation from rational thought, to do an acrobatic jump from Toothless down to the ground, enhanced by his flight suit's wings and back fin. He remembered hitting the button for the spring coil, and nothing happening. His recollection was blank after that. One small mercy at least.

_Time for a damage assessment. _Back, not good. Arms and legs, attached to back. They didn't hurt, not yet, but from what he could see in the dim light without twisting his head, there were rips and scuffs in the leather of his flight suit that suggested potential damage underneath. _Internal stuff? _He still felt sick from his attempt to move but there was no pain other than the rib he'd first injured back on Berk.

This was the second time he'd been hurt after the business with Drago, as a result of his own stupidity. If he made it back home, he'd need to see if there was a test he could devise to find out whether his brain had been switched with Snotlout's when he wasn't looking.

_Can't stay here like this forever. Gotta find out where I am, what time it is, if Toothless is ok._

"Hey," he said hoarsely, and coughed again. _Dammit, that hurts. _"Hey. Bud. You awake up there?"

There was a shift of black wings above him, and a concerned dragon face appeared in his field of vision. Toothless started to lick him, happy that he was awake, but the jostling from the motion of the big pink tongue made him cry out and the face retreated guiltily.

"It's ok, bud," he said weakly. "I'm glad you're all right. Just…be careful with me, understand?"

The dragon circled him once and then sat down in front of him, looking worried. Hiccup managed to move his head an inch or so to the left to peer around the area where he lay; by the shadows and the quality of the light, he guessed it was sometime in the afternoon. There were trees in every direction. He must have crashed down through them when the failure of his back fin took him outside his intended landing zone.

He groaned as he realized that probably no one on Berk had any clue where they were. He hadn't even given Astrid a time when he'd be back; had he really just said "later," before slamming the door like a pouting teenager? He wondered how long she would wait before she figured something was wrong and came looking for them. She'd found them on Itchy Armpit before, but by the time she was likely to get concerned, it would be dark here when she arrived, and she might not have a good way to get them back to Berk.

He also realized he had packed no food, and no water. _Great._

Time passed. After awhile, Hiccup lost grasp of how long he had lain there on the forest bed of loam, leaves, and dried pine needles. He started to get bored with the view from his position on his side, but as soon as he tried to move, strange and terrible sensations cruised through his spine. He gave up and let his mind wander, his eyes tracking Toothless as the dragon eventually grew restless in his seated position and started pacing around, checking out the forest around them but never straying more than fifteen or twenty feet away.

Eventually, although he tried his best to concentrate on other things, his thoughts drifted back to the morning's argument.

_Ugh, why did I yell at Astrid? Yes, she hurt me. I'm still mad at her. We need to talk. Badly. But I shouldn't have raised my voice to her. She was scared. She gave herself to me and then I repaid her by making her tea and yelling at her. She's never looked at me like that before, like she was afraid of me. We've been married less than twenty-four hours, probably, and I've already screwed things up. _

There was a water droplet on his face, then another. And another. It was starting to rain.

"Over here, bud," he said, "hope you don't mind being my tent until this blows through." The dragon rumbled deep in his throat and surrounded him again. Despite the warmth of the big scaly body against him, he started to shiver.

_Come on, Astrid, _he begged. _Please don't pick today to leave me alone with my feelings. Come find me. I need you. I'm sorry. Please._

* * *

"I already told you," said Astrid. "I don't know where he went. He's a grown man. He doesn't need to clear everything with me."

Feeling guilty over the idea of lazing about the house in Hiccup's absence, but too listless to organize wedding gifts, Astrid had decided to spend the rest of the afternoon helping out with the ongoing excavation of Berk from under the dark Alpha dragon's ice. The greenish stuff was disturbing to deal with: it was hard and unyielding and the amount of heat required to melt it also set fire to the wood underneath. For weeks, nearly every able-bodied Berkian had gone home each day with sore muscles and a banged-up pickaxe. Gobber (and Hiccup too when he had the time) ran the forge as many hours a day as they could stand, constantly repairing the villagers' metal tools.

Hiccup had decided, in consultation with the village elders, the order in which homes would be excavated and repaired. To Snotlout's great delight, the Jorgensons' cottage was top of the list the present afternoon. Astrid's more sedentary wedding preparations had left her a bit fresher for physical labor than some others; she had stepped in to relieve a middle-aged member of the work detail, and was currently up on the roof with Snotlout and the rest of the gang as they pried and chipped ice from the roof shingles.

Naturally, they all wanted to know why Hiccup was gone and why the couple wasn't taking the two-day vacation from work that Astrid had bargained for. She still wasn't thrilled about answering their questions, but unfortunately, her taciturn responses only convinced them further that something was up.

"Did you at least…you know." Tuffnut made a suggestive gesture.

"Oh my gods!" cried Fishlegs, the only one of the group besides Hiccup who ever considered Astrid in need of protecting. "How is that any of your concern?"

"Hey, with all the trouble Hiccup gets into, we need to make sure there's an heir lined up."

"Better make it two heirs," followed Snotlout, and looked hurt when Fishlegs glared at him. "What? Just to be safe, you know. Accidents happen, and any kid those two produce will be so shrimpy the dragons might mistake it for a tasty treat."

"Don't be absurd," Astrid snapped.

"So how was it?" asked Ruffnut. "Better than smoking dragon nip even? C'mon, you can tell us, we're your friends and best suppliers."

"For the last time," said Astrid emphatically, "I don't smoke dragon nip. That's your thing. I tried it once, it made me sick and Hiccup hates the idea anyway. You know him—he doesn't even like the effect of mead."

"Ooooh," Snotlout mocked, "aren't we just the obedient little housewife. You've even got your hair up, doll, don't think we didn't notice."

Astrid lunged for him with the jagged piece of ice she had just broken off, aiming for his throat. She was restrained just in time by Fishlegs and Ruffnut, but still managed to kick the squat, dark-haired young man in the solar plexus, sending him sliding down the roof. He grabbed on just before he went over the edge.

"What the Hel is wrong with you?" he shrieked. "For at least a while, you were so in love you could take a joke. Guess our chief wasn't so great in the sack after all, to leave you so pissed off."

"You might," said Astrid, panting through gritted teeth, "want to avoid taunting the people who are helping to repair your house."

Snotlout hauled himself back up onto the roof with his beefy arms. He shrugged unrepentantly. "Fair enough."

Ruffnut knelt back down to continue working. Twisting to pick up a heavier tool, something caught her eye; she looked to the horizon and squinted.

"Look over there, guys, to the east. Storm's coming up."

"Valka said there might be one," Astrid said. "She claims her dragon is an expert weather forecaster."

"Looks nasty," said Tuffnut. "We'd better hurry so we can get as much done as possible before we get rained out."

"Damn," Snotlout complained. "It would have to rain on the day we're doing _my _house."

They worked for another hour or so, until the wind started to blow so hard they were having trouble staying atop the roof.

"Up to the Mead Hall," yelled Tuffnut, "it's warm in there and there's still leftover wedding food we can eat." They trudged up the hill, shielding their faces from the wind. Astrid's upswept hair was half down by the time they struggled through the door; once inside, she yanked the remaining pins from her head and scrubbed her scalp in relief as her braid resumed its familiar weight against her back.

The group made for the tables at the rear of the hall, where some of the older women routinely placed extra food for the work detail and for families with more mouths to feed than most.

Astrid picked up a roll and washed it down with some ale from the nearby pitcher.

"Not your mom's bread," she said to Fishlegs. "Or yours either."

"Nope," he responded, looking smug. "Ours is gone already. It always gets snatched up first."

"Does _Hiccup _know you're drinking ale?" Snotlout teased. Fishlegs shot him a warning glance but Astrid didn't respond. She was preoccupied with the sound of thunder above their heads.

"He isn't back yet."

"He's okay," Fishlegs said, patting her on the shoulder. "He's got Toothless, and he's not dumb. He'll be hunkered down somewhere, waiting it out. If he's even someplace where the storm has reached. It might be sunny still where he is, for all we know."

Astrid sat down with the others at one of the heavy wooden tables. She absentmindedly chewed on another stale roll, and tried to convince herself that Fishlegs was right. She had been determined today not to go after Hiccup, to instead give him room to be upset and to think through things on his own terms.

But she _knew _he hadn't taken any provisions with him out the door, and he had been so anxious to get away that she guessed he likely hadn't acquired any elsewhere either before taking off.

Her foot jiggled impatiently as she looked around the hall while the others talked, unable to participate in their conversation. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore.

"I'm going," she said, and abruptly rose from her seat on the bench.

Fishlegs looked up at her, mouth agape. "_What? _In this storm? Have you lost your mind? You have no idea where he is. You'll get soaked, and potentially struck by lightning."

"Let us go with you," said Ruffnut. "Two heads, erm, three heads are better than one. Wait—" she started counting on her fingers, trying to figure out the combined number of heads provided by the twins, Astrid, and their dragons.

Astrid shook her head. "No. Stormfly is the best tracker, and she's faster than all of you. I've trained her to carry messages back to Berk on her own. If you see her land without me, you'll know something's wrong."

Fishlegs sighed. "I can't believe you're doing this. Is there anything you need? What can we get for you?"

Astrid thought quickly. "An oilskin blanket, and a wool one. Two skins of water. Bread, cheese, and fruit for two days. You can get that from my house. Bandages. A knife, but I already have one. Bring it all up to the meeting room by the dragon stalls."

"I've got the food," called Fishlegs, and hurried out, hiking his vest up over his head.

"Bandages," said Ruff and Tuff simultaneously.

Snotlout looked at her for a moment. "Blankets," he said at long last.

"Thanks, 'Lout."

"Astrid?"

"What?"

"I'm sorry. And be careful."

"Always am," Astrid replied flatly, unaware of the irony. She walked purposefully away from him toward the hall's huge double doors, her braid swinging freely behind her.

She had forgotten all about Valka's meatballs.

0000

_That's right, folks, in my head-canon Fishlegs and his mom are bread-making Vikings. You saw it here first. Maybe. I have no idea._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: The whump is less gratuitous if you cut it with humor. This also as far as I'm willing to go with the fluff. _

_000_

Astrid swiped her wet bangs out of her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time. Though her wool-lined oilskin jacket shunted most of the water away from her head and body, it didn't stop the wind from blowing pelting raindrops into her face. She wished she had taken Hiccup's advice when he had suggested she construct a masked helmet like his. He had made it to protect his face from the wind and sun while dragondiving, but it sure would come in handy at times like this as well.

She and Stormfly were huddled next to each other under some trees on an uninhabited island east of Berk. The dragon's tracking abilities had gotten them this far, but the continuing rain was confusing the scent. They had hopped from island to island in this area for a solid hour and had yet to find any trace of the Night Fury or his rider. It was getting darker and darker, and Astrid was beginning to despair of the possibility of finding them before being forced to take shelter for the night. Stormfly was getting cranky, and increasingly reluctant to take off every time they searched an island without finding anything.

"You've been such a good girl," Astrid crooned. "Just one more. Okay? We haven't searched Itchy Armpit yet, and I know it's just three miles further east." The dragon shook out her wings in irritation and gave Astrid the stinkeye.

She sighed. _Time to pull out the big guns_. She reached deep into her pack and pulled out the stash of chicken she'd stowed in case of dire need. Holding it up in front of the Nadder's eye, she said, "One more island. Then we'll find a place to sleep. I promise."

Stormfly hesitated and looked hopeful.

"Fine. Chicken, now; you get some more _and _two strands of dragon nip when we get there."

Silence. The reptile drove a hard bargain.

"Ten strands if we find Hiccup. Final offer."

The dragon croaked assent. Astrid tossed a drumstick into her eager, open maw and climbed back into the saddle, praying to every god she could think of that their search would soon be over.

000000

There it was. Through the rain and fog, Astrid could make out the irregular curves of the land mass with the ridiculous name. It was here that she and Hiccup had enjoyed their last, carefree moments together before they were nearly captured by Eret, before the discovery that would change their lives forever. Why Hiccup might land here, she had no idea. Nostalgia, perhaps. Her husband (the word still felt odd and new, even just hearing it in her head) had a bit of a gloomy, sentimental side that surfaced when he was under a lot of stress. Astrid destroyed things; he brooded.

It had been a sunny, beautiful day, their first time here. In the grayness of the storm, though, with latent panic gnawing at her insides, the island looked a lot less appealing: the sort of place where mothers would set stories about children getting eaten by trolls, to scare away early-developing Viking wanderlust.

"Here's hoping," she said to Stormfly, and they circled lower and lower, the dragon's nostrils opening wide to get the best scent. She recognized the spit where she had found her fiancé the first time— "Anything?" she asked, patting her friend's neck. There was a negative honk in return and Astrid snorted in frustration and distress. Her hands were getting numb and her posterior ached from sitting in the saddle for so long.

_Come on. _

"Ok. Other side, then. We're almost done. I want a rest, too."

They sailed around the outer coast, the wind buffeting them hard and shoving Astrid's hood down her back, away from her head. She cursed but didn't dare risk letting go of the saddle, even with one hand, to pull it back up.

"Down there," she yelled, and shifted her weight forward to direct them down to the spit of open ground on the opposite side of the island from the area she knew.

As they came in to land, a strong draft of air shoved them from below and they went sprawling into the ground. Astrid was thrown hard against Stormfly's neck, but there was no time for her to feel winded. She jumped off as quickly as she could and led the dragon into the trees. The rain still fell on them, but it was less widespread and they were at least somewhat sheltered from the storm gusts.

The air smelled of mist and moss and rotting vegetation. Astrid looked around, searching for a place to hide at least temporarily while they collected their wits.

Stormfly dashed forward suddenly, squawking in excitement.

"Did you smell them, girl? Go!" She ran after the dragon, stumbling over the soft, damp earth—she tripped and fell, soaking the front of her leggings and her arm bracers in mud. Wrenching her head up, she saw what the dragon had dashed toward: a familiar black dragon-shaped lump.

"Toothless!" she shouted. "_Hiccup!" _She pushed to her feet and lurched onward. Toothless's head came up, and he greeted them with a deep growl-bark, his ears perked straight up, eyes round. Astrid knelt down before the dragon and touched his nose. "I'm so glad to see you, big fella," she said, "I thought we'd never find you before dark." Her brows twitched downward as she noticed the dragon hadn't moved; he was vibrating a little, perhaps from anxiety,but didn't rise.

She reached for his slightly extended, draped wing and lifted it gently to peer below.

"Hiccup." There was no response. The wing lifted higher and she crawled underneath. Hiccup was curled on his side, his flight suit looking worse for wear, and beneath his bangs Astrid glimpsed the swollen evidence of a blow to the head. She debated whether to try waking him. Obviously he was unconscious for a reason, either fatigue or injury, but based on the answers he could (or couldn't) give her, she could figure out if she needed to send Stormfly back with a message, and if so, how long she could wait until making the request. She certainly didn't want to send her off now, not in this weather, without any rest.

She ran a tentative hand down his arm and squeezed his limp fingers. They twitched, but he didn't move. She shook his shoulder.

"Hiccup. Hey. Wake up." His eyes opened slowly. He winced at her, confused, then his face cleared as he recognized her under the heavy jacket.

"Hey yourself," he rasped. "Does my wife know you're here? She might get jealous."

"Oh, gods," said Astrid. She didn't know whether to shout at him, laugh wildly, or cry. He had finally been found—on an island miles away from Berk, in the rain, obviously hurt, and he was making _jokes_.

"You must have whacked your head pretty hard," she finally responded in kind, her voice sounding strange and flat in her ears. "You don't even recognize your own wife."

"Oh," Hiccup said, smiling faintly. "It _is _you. About time you showed up." He gave a dry cough and his face contorted in pain. "Did you bring the welcome ship? 'Cause I'd love a hot bath, maybe some mead even, my senses are a little _too _raw right now—"

"Save your breath," Astrid interjected, to put a stop to his concussed rambling. "It's just me, I'm afraid. Wanted to find you as quick as possible, once that storm hit Berk. When you said you'd be back later, you didn't say 'later, after I fly two hours east and crash land in the middle of nowhere.'"

"Sorry," said Hiccup. He swallowed heavily and closed his eyes again. "I'm sorry for some other things, too."

"Don't talk like that," said Astrid, frightened. "Just tell me how hurt you are so I can decide whether to send Stormfly back right now, or give her the chance to rest until morning."

"Ok…"

"All right. Are you dying? Please say no."

"…No."

"I'm serious, Hiccup." Astrid slid a hand under his bangs to look at the bump on his head. "How bad is that?"

"Dunno. I was out for awhile after I crashed, I think, but I stayed awake for hours after waking up. Pretty sure it was hours. Felt like hours."

"That's good…I guess. What else? What happened, anyway?"

"A lot of things. Didn't know what I was doing. Bad timing with the wind. Spring coil wasn't attached. Back fin didn't open after I jumped."

Astrid's heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, no, this is all my fault. You always told me I was going to break the thing, punching you in the chest all the time…"

"No," said Hiccup, shaking his head slightly. "It wasn't you, I forgot to reattach it last week in the workshop. Too…many things to keep track of."

Astrid gazed up and down his prone body, trying to see if there was anything else visibly awry. He wasn't missing any more limbs, _good_, she didn't see lots of blood anywhere, he was awake and he wasn't screaming in pain. She hoped he was just tired from what appeared to be a mild concussion and exposure. With any luck, after a night's rest and some food they could make it back to Berk before the next midday.

Still, she wanted to examine him more thoroughly before it was completely dark. She pushed his top shoulder, expecting to roll him onto his back so she could check his abdomen.

She pulled away quickly when he let out a strangled cry.

"Don't—do that," he gritted. Toothless made a low gurgling sound and turned his head to glare at her like she'd done something horrible.

"I'm sorry! What's the matter?"

"I…must have hit something wrong as I fell. Hurt my back." Even in the dimming light under Toothless's wing, Astrid could tell his face had turned an odd greenish color. _No no no no. This makes everything more complicated. Why couldn't you have just broken an arm or something? _Then again, for all she knew, he had, and just couldn't feel it.

"Can I pat you down? To make sure all your nerves are still attached?"

"Oh, they are, trust me—"

"I mean it." She ran her hand over whatever she could reach of his arms and legs without trying to change his position, poking gently, making him close his eyes and tell her where. His lower arm was somewhat numb, but he insisted it was from lying on it for hours and she believed him.

"You're sure you're not bleeding inside? Because we can't get your suit off easily to check for swelling or bruising. I could hack through it with my knife but even that will jostle you."

"Not that I know of. Only thing wrong in there is that stupid rib I broke before, fixing the Mead Hall."

Astrid sat back on her heels and combed her cold fingers through her bangs again. She was still on the fence with regard to the situation at hand, and the adrenaline of the trip was wearing off, leaving her tired and shaky.

"Damn it to Hel, Hiccup, when are you going to stop attracting mayhem and disaster?"

"When I'm dead," replied Hiccup, and coughed again. "Hopefully not soon. Did you bring water? Please tell me you brought water."

"I brought water," said Astrid. "For real." She pulled a water skin out of her pack, uncorked it and tipped it carefully to his lips. "We have enough provisions for two days. If you're sure we'll last through the night, I'll send Stormfly for help in the morning. We'll be back on Berk before you can say 'Snotlout stinks.'"

Hiccup started to laugh, but something inside him twinged that Astrid couldn't see, and he hissed in pain.

"No more jokes," he said. "I beg you."

"You started it," said Astrid, feeling slightly hysterical. Hiccup just glared at her for a second, then sighed heavily through his nose.

"I'm cold," he said. Astrid pulled both blankets from her pack and draped them over him; first the woolen one, then the oilskin one. She wished there was a way to get him off the ground without risking further damage, but this would have to do. She dug out a hunk of bread, tore off a bite-sized piece, and stuck it in his mouth. He needed food as well as water. "Don't choke," she warned. Out next came the promised chicken for Stormfly, then the dragon nip. A fish for Toothless, and more dragon nip. She figured he deserved it.

At her coaxing, her dragon came near to Toothless and draped a wing next to his, to give them a slightly broader shelter from the rain. Astrid inched under the blankets, facing away from Hiccup so they could spoon for warmth. Though he'd said he was cold, his breath was hot on her neck. She pulled her hood up over her head and tucked her arms up into her sleeves.

They lay there for awhile, listening to the sounds of the rain falling through the trees and the soft guttural warbling of their dragons as they got reacquainted with each other. Her eyes closed.

His voice reached her ears in the darkness, slightly muted through her hood.

"I love you, Astrid."

"I know. Go to sleep."

000

_A/N: Yep. Star Wars fan. ESB reference right there._


	5. Chapter 5

_Astrid was on Berk, racing on foot through the dim labyrinth of passageways that connected the dragons' recently constructed rookeries and stables. She was chasing after Hiccup, as usual, but he was moving uncommonly quick; her breaths came hard and fast as she tried to keep him in view. They started up a spiral staircase, and somehow she knew they were headed for the forge. She had no idea what he was planning, just that she had to keep up with him—if she didn't, something unknown yet terrible was going to happen._

_Her foot missed a step, and she was falling, about to crack her chin on the stone stairs. She jerked backward…_

…and the rear of her head collided with her real-life husband's jaw. He shrieked in pain and surprise as the force of her unexpected convulsion knocked him onto his back.

Astrid startled up to a sitting position under the blankets, looking around wildly at the unfamiliar surroundings. It was daylight, though the sun wasn't up over the trees yet. Their dragons were some twenty feet away, grooming each other. It took her a second to remember where they were and what had happened, and she twisted to look at Hiccup, who lay stunned and groaning next to her.

"Dear Odin!" she cried. "Did I push you over? You weren't supposed to move, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

He didn't respond for a few seconds, still gasping for air and coherent thought.

"Don't worry about it," he managed finally. "You've done worse to me, on purpose."

She bent over him and kissed the very tip of his nose, the place she figured was safest.

"That's the problem—you're only supposed to be hurt when I _want _you to be."

"We don't always get what we want," he grunted.

"Did I break you? Are you okay?"

"I'm not as bad as yesterday," he responded. "The last time I tried to move, I saw stars and almost blacked out. This time I just…aah." He trailed off, a spasm twisting his face, and Astrid felt a sympathetic pinch in her spine. She had been hoping he would be recovered enough this morning for her to undress him and get a better look at his injuries before sending Stormfly home with a note. She cursed herself for not thinking to request a packet of Gothi's painkilling herbs before leaving Berk.

Concerned by the sounds his rider was making, Toothless loped over and nosed at Hiccup's face. He cooed, and licked the angry-looking contusion on the young man's forehead.

"Thanks, bud," he responded. "That one's the least of my issues, though." He let out a determined breath and reached his left hand up to stroke the dragon's nose and scratch his jaw.

Astrid slapped and scraped at her clothes in irritation, trying to dislodge the mud that had caked and dried on her leggings, in the spikes of her skirt, and in the fur of her arm bracers under her jacket sleeves.

"Do I have mud on my face?" she asked Hiccup, unable to extinguish a small spark of personal vanity. She didn't mind getting dirty, not at all, but she wasn't a fan of _staying _dirty. She'd scraped the warpaint off her face in between Berk and here, on her way after Hiccup the first time.

"Yep," he said. "Looks great on you, milady."

Astrid didn't believe him. She searched her clothing for an available clean patch she could use to scrub her face. She settled for opening her jacket and untucking her tight blouse, pulling it up to reveal bare, soft skin underneath as she swiped the fabric over her cheeks, chin, and forehead.

Hiccup attempted a wolf whistle, but the sound came out parched and hoarse. He doubled over on his side and coughed, grimacing in pain, the dryness in his throat making it hard for him to stop the paroxysm.

Astrid turned to look around until she spotted her pack with their supplies. She knew from unfortunate prior experience what Hiccup looked like when he was dehydrated and undernourished—there was a certain cast to the skin, a particular texture to his lips. Both of which were all too evident this morning.

"When was the last time you had to pee?" she asked bluntly.

Hiccup blinked a few times, embarrassed. "Yesterday afternoon. After I woke up from the crash."

Astrid's nose wrinkled.

"Oh, boy. I sure am looking forward to getting that suit off you now. By which I mean, not at all." She wondered if there was a spring or creek nearby where she might fetch fresh water for cleaning herself and Hiccup both; she wasn't about to use up any of their current drinking supplies, not if there was little chance of replenishing them easily.

"You should drink some more water," she said.

To her surprise, he managed to push himself up on his elbows and take the open water skin from her. He swallowed several deep draughts and she was relieved when after a number of minutes it appeared that the liquid would stay where it belonged.

She made him eat some more bread, and a piece of fruit, then tried to get him up, to see if he had the capacity to climb on Toothless. They would get back to Berk much faster if he could. But it was plain from the look on his face as soon as he tried to roll over to his knees and stand that returning home that way was not an option. He sank back to the ground in a limp armored bundle; she covered him with the woolen blanket again and folded up the oilskin one to put under his head.

_Time for Plan B, _she thought.

Astrid got out leather parchment and a heavy pencil of the type Hiccup used for map marking. She scrawled instructions. Looking over at him, she chewed the end of the pencil and added a request for Gothi's sleep draught as well as the pain formula.

"Do you have the map on you, babe?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said blankly.

"Can I have it?"

"Yeah."

He made no attempt to move, and she crawled over to him, pulling the map from its pocket on his chest.

"What are you doing?" he said, suddenly alarmed when she opened it up and reached over with the pencil.

"Making it obvious where we are," she answered. "Don't want them to look for us any longer than they have to."

"But, you'll mark it up—"

"Yes," she said firmly. "You're more important to us—to me—than this is right now. You can smudge it out, or replace the panel, later."

"Please," he protested, but Astrid ignored him and finished preparing the message parcel for Stormfly. He put his head back down on the oilskin, looking miffed. Though the sun had risen and it was warming their forest glade, he pulled the blanket up higher and coughed.

She glanced over again as she attached the message bag to her dragon's tack. "Sulking doesn't befit the chief of Berk," she said lightly.

"I'm not sulking," Hiccup replied. "I'm grieving my fine artwork."

Astrid stepped back and knelt next to him, gently pressing the back of her fingers to his forehead, not letting him see her frown.

"Stormfly," she called. "It's time, girl. _Fetch help." _

The dragon squawked and took off for home.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

After sending off Stormfly, Astrid stayed by Hiccup's side for awhile, stroking and shushing him until he appeared to be asleep again. She knew for sure he was out when she bent down and kissed his forehead near his temple and received no response, not even the flicker of an eyelash.

She calculated in her head how long it might be until anyone from Berk arrived. Two hours, maybe a little less, for Stormfly to make it home, if the wind was in her favor. Some time for their rescuers to prepare. Two more hours, at least, for the trip from Berk; more if another storm came up to delay their departure. On a pessimistic view, it might be close to nightfall again before anyone showed up.

Feeling restless, and still curious about a potential source of fresh water, she got up carefully and beckoned to Toothless.

"I'm going hunting for a stream," she said. "Stay here." _Of course he'll stay. Has it ever been easy to separate them? _

As though he'd read her mind, the black dragon blinked and rolled his eyes. Astrid gave him the rest of the fish she'd packed—there weren't many, and she wanted them consumed before they started to smell. He gulped them down, then settled next to Hiccup, spreading a wing over him to keep off the intensifying sun.

Astrid shed her heavy jacket and folded it next to her pack. She took a final glance over their makeshift campsite, then slung her axe across her back and headed off into the woods. She ventured further and further in, climbing over rotting logs, using her arm bracers to fend off the incursions of sticker branches, listening for the sound of running water.

Every fifty paces, she marked a tree with her heavy pencil so she could find her way back, keeping her eye on the sun, not wanting to be gone too long. She didn't doubt Toothless's ability to protect Hiccup, but she didn't want the boy to wake and panic at her absence.

_He's not a boy anymore, _she reminded herself. _He's the chief of Berk, and a married man. _

Out here though, alone with the sounds of unfamiliar birds, breathing in the piney scent that hung all around in the air, everything that had recently transpired at home felt far away and strange in her memory. Even her mental images of their wedding (was it really only two days ago?) had taken on a slightly surreal quality, the new, odd-feeling metal love token on her finger the only immediate proof that it had even taken place.

The ring was a simple yet delicate silver rope of two strands, the outer and inner rims slightly flattened so it would feel more natural and less noticeable on her hand. _Leave it to Hiccup to think of a small, thoughtful detail like that._ She wished she had found him slightly less injured, to give them a chance to hide out here a few more days and relax; she increased her pace, determined to conclude her search quick enough to guarantee them at least some time to talk before the rescue party could arrive. Once they were back on Berk, Frigga only knew what might be in store for them.

She grew hot and hungry, and was nearly ready to turn back toward camp when she heard it: the dim whoosh of a stream. She came across it over the next small ridge and followed it up for several minutes, hoping to find the source to ensure the water was decently uncontaminated.

The spring did eventually appear, but with it came something else, unwelcome and unsettling. There was a dead body lying in the hollow where the spring bubbled up. The body of a dragon.

Astrid crept closer for a better look. It was a Nadder; _not Stormfly! _thank the gods, it had different coloring and was smaller, but it was in bad shape, as though it had died of unnatural causes. Astrid glanced around nervously, concerned that whatever was strong enough to bring down a Deadly Nadder might still be lurking nearby.

There was a rustling noise from a neighboring bush; she retreated several paces and crouched, pulling her axe from her back and holding it in front of her, ready to strike, or turn and run.

She stood up and sighed in relief as two more Nadders, babies only a few months grown, crawled out from underneath. They squeaked piteously as they saw what Astrid assumed was the body of their mother.

"Aw, I'm sorry, guys," she said. She wished she had brought some dragon nip along to placate them. She wanted nothing more than to sit down and play with them, but didn't want to risk getting bitten or scratched. Not while she was alone, a mile away from her pack, with a dragon-killing _something _still out there.

Astrid turned to leave, and gestured at the infant reptiles. _My clothes probably smell like dragon nip and fish. Maybe I can still persuade them to follow me_. _They'll have a better chance with me than out here in the wild without a parent. _

"Come on, babies," she said, following up with one of the Nadder vocalizations that Valka had taught her: the one that was supposedly closest to _I love you. _She used it on Stormfly all the time, and also occasionally on Hiccup (to tease him, since she refused to tell him what it meant). To her delight they came after her, hopping along and flapping their tiny wings to clear the logs as she clambered over them on her way back to the camp.

0000000000

As Astrid reentered the forest glade, she saw that Hiccup had woken and was sitting against the moss-covered boulder near where she had discovered him the previous night. She was glad to find him vertical instead of horizontal this time, and it looked like some of the color had returned to his face.

As she approached, however, he didn't smile at her.

"Where _were _you?" he asked.

"I went looking for fresh water," she replied. "You were asleep, and I wasn't gone long. I don't think."

"You scared me. I didn't have any clue what happened to you. What if you had been attacked by a Whispering Death or something?"

Astrid _pssh_-ed and sat down next to him. "You think I can't deal with one of those?" She lifted his bangs again to check the bump on his head. "That looks mildly better than before. Are you still dizzy?"

"Some," he said, pulling his head away from her to look toward the edge of the glade. "_What are those?" _

The Nadder babies came forward, chirping as they approached the two young people. Toothless gave an inquisitive grunt, and looked at Hiccup for guidance as to whether he should make them keep their distance.

"I found them by the spring," Astrid explained. "Their mother had been downed by something—" not wanting to worry him further, she decided to leave off _speaking of which, I hope whatever it is doesn't find us before our friends do._

"Great," said Hiccup. "Just what we need, more mouths to feed." He leaned his head back against the rock and closed his eyes.

"Aw, come on," Astrid wheedled. "Valka—I mean, your mom—brought so many dragons with her already. They'll fit right in, I'm sure they won't be noticed. I even bet Stormfly will foster them until she has her next clutch."

"I didn't say no," Hiccup responded tiredly.

Astrid let him be for a few minutes, while she ate a small meal and took some sips from the water skin. She had a small amount of chicken left that she hadn't given to Stormfly, and she tossed it to the baby Nadders, who gobbled it up eagerly. They started trying to play with Toothless, and he humored them with some reluctance. They chased him round and round in the trees, trying to clamp onto his tail.

Astrid attempted to get Hiccup to drink some more water, but he turned it down.

"Well," she said, and started to run her fingers through his thick auburn hair, picking out pieces of dirt and pine needles. "This isn't where I had planned for us to spend time alone after the wedding. It's pretty now that the rain stopped, though."

Hiccup didn't respond for a minute; he was listlessly studying the pattern of tree leaves overhead. He regretted having let Astrid talk him into eating so much earlier. It wasn't sitting well and he sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to roll over suddenly and be sick.

Her words finally registered in his brain and he sighed.

He reached up and pulled her hands away from his hair, leaving the new braid uncompleted.

"I've decided I still don't like secrets, Astrid," he said.

"I'm not apologizing for that one," she responded, a little defensively. "You were so set on continuing your chief duties in spite of the wedding, and I didn't think it was worthwhile to argue with you when we were both so frazzled. So I took care of it. I wanted you to myself."

"You got your wish," said Hiccup bitterly. "Happy with where things ended up?"

"Not particularly. You know this isn't how either one of us wanted to start our marriage."

"Why not?" he mused, "we started our relationship…sort of…on the same day I lost a foot."

"At least we started off on the right foot," Astrid punned, and he groaned. "Damn it, Astrid, I told you, no more jokes."

"Sorry."

"Are you?" he looked at her sideways, his tone carrying a resonance of suspicion she wasn't accustomed to and wasn't sure how to interpret.

"What do you mean?" she asked, a bit hurt.

"I'm not sure I can believe your apologies anymore. You _lied _to me earlier."

"I didn't lie to you. I…withheld information."

"Information you thought was important, that you thought I might want to know."

"You were already so busy, and stressed, with losing your dad, with the village, with everything…"

"You think that matters? Don't make excuses, Astrid, this is the _rest of my_ _life _we're talking about. Our _marriage._"

"You're one to talk," Astrid pushed back, feeling uncomfortable. "You hid a dragon from everyone for weeks! You think people wouldn't have wanted to know about that?"

"And good thing they didn't, they would have killed him! Do you really think the two situations are equivalent?" he demanded.

"…no." Astrid couldn't deny that she wished she had told him everything, much earlier, about what had happened on Drago's ship, but she resented that he refused to let it go.

"Okay then," said Hiccup.

"Okay, what?" she said. "I'm sorry, Hiccup, what more do you want? I wish I could undo everything, but I can't. Can't you drop it? You forgave your mom for _abandoning _you—you even invited her to move in with us after the wedding, without asking me first, I might add—"

"You think I'm thrilled about that?" he countered, the pitch of his voice rising. "I'm not, the whole thing freaks me out, but she's my mom and she obviously wants to be around me and I love her, I guess, what am I supposed to say to her, 'No, parent I haven't seen in twenty years, please live somewhere else?' And we barely know each other, and she's always _there, _trying to pull me away from my village responsibilities to teach me new dragon stuff. And I'd like to go, but I _can't, _and if I did, who knows, Eret might whisk you off with those big, muscled arms of his—"

"_What?" _she screeched.

"Come on, I've seen you checking him out whenever he carries a load of new shingles by your work area. You can't deny he's got that whole…scarred dragon trapper...style…thing…going on, and I don't like how he looks at you, as though he knows what you look like under your clothes—"

"I don't know what you're talking about, you usually assign us to opposite ends of the village!"

"Because of what I said!"

"So? Am I not allowed to look at anyone who isn't you?" Astrid had forgotten about his latent jealous streak; she hadn't seen much of it since the year he had nearly beaten Snotlout in the Thawfest games, and she was unpleasantly reminded now of how much she disliked it.

"I didn't say that," said Hiccup, "I just—"

"You know what, Hiccup?" Astrid interrupted, fed up. "You say you're tired of secrets. Well, here you go. Yes, sometimes I admire Eret's arms. And his butt, too, if you're interested to know. In fact, I've checked out every boy on Berk, and some of the girls, too."

Hiccup's mouth dropped open, and he gaped at her.

"And you know what else? You remember how you showed me those drawings for the mountain carving of your dad, and I said it was great? Well, I don't think it's great. I think it's the tackiest thing I've ever seen, but I said otherwise, because I could see how much it meant to you, and I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

Hiccup still didn't respond, and she pushed on, "I also hate that you don't like mead, because I do, and I want to slap you every time you scowl at me for drinking it. I hate that you always ignore me when I tell you that you're limping from your prosthetic and I hate that I'm the sucker who always ends up bandaging your leg later. I also hate your wingsuit, not because of how it looks on you, because you're damned hot in it, but because you spend more time messing with it than you spend with me, and because one of these days you're going to make a mistake like you did yesterday, only the next time it might KILL you, and then I don't know what I'd do, probably throw myself off a sea stack, because you're the only boy I've ever loved, and I can't stand the idea of living without you…" she trailed off, and put her face in her hands while Hiccup stared in shock.

After a long minute, she looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen.

"Those are all the secrets I can think of right now. I'll let you know if I remember any more. Oh, yeah: there's something on this island that kills Deadly Nadders."

00

"Something that…kills Nadders?" Hiccup repeated hoarsely. His mind was reeling from Astrid's revelations, and he latched onto the one thing that felt concrete and immediate.

She nodded. "You should have seen the body, all torn up and mangled. It wasn't pretty."

"I don't like that at all. When you said 'brought down,' I assumed you meant a disease or an accident or something…we both know that even Toothless won't mess with Stormfly when she's having a bad day."

Hiccup looked down at the flame sword clasped to his leg, as if to make sure it was still there. He took a deep breath—it caught inside, and he lurched forward, coughing into the crook of his elbow.

Toothless made his way back over to them, dragging along the Nadder babies that had clamped onto the end of his tail above the back fin. He pressed his head into Hiccup's shoulder and moaned in concern, nudging his rider with his nose.

Hiccup winced and pushed his friend away gingerly. He continued to cough. Astrid couldn't tell if it was from lingering dehydration or the stress of their argument. Nerves buzzing, she wrapped her arm gently around his lower back and tried not to picture splintered bone interacting with delicate lung tissue.

Her previous unburdening suddenly felt childish and self-centered. _Gods, why couldn't I have waited until we were home? _

"He's telling you to lie down, babe."

"I can't," said Hiccup, once the spasm had passed. "Not any more, with a creature…or a person…that can do that kind of damage, on the loose."

"It'll be ok," she responded. "Toothless won't let anything happen to us." She pulled him down carefully so his head was resting in her lap.

"He's at a disadvantage," Hiccup said, twisting in vexation. "What if he goes off the cliff edge? He almost drowned when one of my mom's dragons plucked me out of the saddle, before…"

"Stop it," said Astrid, desperate to get him to relax. "Quit struggling, you'll hurt yourself." She smoothed his hair away from his face with firm, caring strokes, furious with herself for her mistimed outburst, for letting him bait her into recounting her laundry list of buried hurts. Hiccup sighed and lay still, giving himself over to her ministrations.

"You win, milady. Just—take this, okay? You might need it." He reached down blindly and unhooked the flame sword, holding it up over his face so she could reach it.

Astrid turned it over in her hand, feeling the heft and weight of the wrought metal, making sure she located the controls.

"Remember, babe, I've never used this before. Not for real. You only gave me a brief tutorial, right after you finished it and couldn't stop blabbing about it to everyone on the island—" she broke off when his eyes squeezed in embarrassment.

"You know," he said, "Some things are okay to keep secret."

Astrid was silent, choosing instead to keep inspecting the fine details of the unfamiliar weapon. Eventually she put it down on the ground next to them and leaned over her husband. She kissed his mouth, upside-down, as he lay in her lap. Their lips moved in awkward tandem, the half-grown peach fuzz on his chin tickling her nose.

"I'm sorry," he said to her in parting.

"Sorry for…"

"Sorry for pushing you. You can check out other guys all you want, I swear, just as long as—"

She cut him off with another kiss. "I've never been anything but loyal to you," she said. "Even when I was yammering foolishly to Drago, it was out of good motivation. Once I realized what a mistake it was, I didn't tell you about it because I couldn't bear to find out what you look like when you're really disappointed."

"Gods," said Hiccup, and he put his hand over his eyes. "And I made you tell me, and then I yelled at you. I'll never forget the look on your face, like you were afraid of me. It makes me sick just thinking about it. I love you, you should never be afraid of me. I don't want that kind of power over you."

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Astrid asked, feeling guilty again. "I mean, how many times did I stick my axe under your chin when we were younger? And our bruise-to-kiss ratio is still pretty even."

"You're terrifying," he agreed. "In a good way, though."

"Except, when, you know, I say things that make you look like I've ripped your kidneys out. Like three years ago."

"You made it up to me later, I recall. I'd forgotten about that almost, you've only been kind to me since—"

"Still, I think I owe you the chance to pay me back for the last bunch of stuff I dumped on you."

"Hey, I asked for it. Bringing up Eret, what the Hel was I thinking…"

"Come on, I told you all my secrets, it's your turn."

Hiccup hesitated. "There's nothing to say. You're perfect, I don't deserve you—" Astrid pulled her fist back to whack him out of reflex, remembering only just in time that he was hurt. She put her hand down and tapped his nose again instead.

"I mean it. Tell me now, before our ride shows up and I lose my nerve."

"All right," Hiccup said. "I thought Heather was really pretty."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Lame. We already knew that, why else would you have made such dumb decisions? Try again."

"Um…I pictured you naked, starting when I was twelve?"

"You and Snotlout both. One more chance."

"Ugh, I'll never be able to look at 'Lout the same way again. In fact, I might have to punch his nose."

"Quit stalling."

Hiccup was quiet for awhile. Rocks started to form in the pit of Astrid's stomach as her mind flipped through all the things he might say. _What if he tells me he didn't want to marry me after all. What if he wants me to stay home and become a fat housewife with ten Viking brats. What if he actually likes boys._

Finally he said tentatively, "I don't like how you talk to my mom."

_Oh, that's worse. _

"I don't know what you mean. I'm always polite to her."

"It's not the words. It's the look on your face, like you think she chose to exist and lose her Alpha dragon just so she could move here and spite you."

Astrid realized she was clenching her teeth and forced herself to release her jaw. "That's not quite it. It's more like I resent her for abandoning you in the first place, and taking advantage of your kind nature to push herself into your life again, and take up all your time…"

"And what else is she going to do?" asked Hiccup. He hissed air in preparation and rolled off of Astrid's lap. He propped himself on his side and glared at her. "She's excited for me, and we both love dragons—"

"She's obsessed," exclaimed Astrid. "You love dragons, I love dragons, but she loves dragons more than people, I think. We do have people on Berk, in case you've forgotten, and they've been there much longer than the dragons have—"

"You think I don't know there are people on Berk?" Hiccup said harshly. "I think about it all the time, even when I have a spare minute for anything else, including you. Now that I'm chief, I can't _avoid _all the people on Berk. How many of them do you think saw me stomp to the forge yesterday? How many old biddies know we've fought, and will probe me about it for gossip when we get back, pretending to be concerned?"

Astrid smiled at him wryly, trying to diffuse the renewed tension. "Probably most of them. You'll just have to parade me through the village later, pinching my butt, so they'll know everything's okay."

"_Are _we okay?" asked Hiccup. He looked pale and Astrid was afraid he would start coughing again.

"Yes," she said firmly, and held up her hand with the ring. "Unless you want this back, but it would seem like a waste of all the trouble we went to in order to get it on my finger."

"Okay," said Hiccup. He turned to his back and put his arm over his face, his position a daytime parallel of the one he had assumed on their wedding night. Astrid waited a few minutes, but he didn't speak again and after awhile she heard the deep, even breaths of sleep.

_Whew. That conversation turned more dangerous than I'd expected. I bet he's exhausted. _

_…__I really hope Stormfly made it back all right. _

They still had a long time to wait for their retrieval party. Astrid scooted away from Hiccup a few feet so as not to disturb him, and started playing fetch with the Nadder babies.

0000

_A/N: I really want someone to make a crack vid where Valka sings "Dragons are better than people..." Tra la la. _


	6. Chapter 6Epilogue

Toothless paced in protective circles around the campsite, watching his rider and his mate out of the corner of his eye. The boy was asleep again—that bothered Toothless a bit, that he couldn't stay alert for more than a little while, but there was nothing to be done for it—and the girl was distracting those irritating hatchlings away from Toothless's tail for the time being. It still stung mildly where they had impaled it with their tiny baby teeth. Hatchlings often took awhile to learn boundaries; he'd indulged them this time, out of pity for their newly orphaned state, but once they were home he'd have to show them what was what.

He hadn't understood everything the pair had said to each other after the girl had come out of the woods. Many of the people he knew had a bewildering tendency to communicate in circles, using words that contradicted their tone and body language. But he could tell that these two had achieved some kind of truce: the smell of their anger and hurt had dissipated. And every few minutes, the girl would look over at her mate and smile to herself even though her eyes were still tight with worry.

The dragon had not missed the acrid scent of fear that had wafted off of her as she came back to them after her trip to the spring. From the words he did understand, he gathered that it had something to do with the baby Nadders. The humans called them Deadly for a reason, and seeing the hatchlings unaccompanied by their own kind made Toothless nervous also. He had _seen _things, in his travels for the nasty dragon that ate dragons, and he knew that the girl with the sun-colored hair would fight like a Hel demon beside him but he hoped fighting wouldn't be necessary. He was hungry and a bit weak, having refused to hunt since that would mean leaving the human pair alone. Humans' precise anatomy was as much of a mystery to Toothless as their communication habits, but he had long since learned that they were softer than dragons, their hide more permeable and their bones fragile. And the boy couldn't get up, still, even though he was well enough to say things that upset his mate, and Toothless didn't like that. Things that couldn't move, in the wild, didn't live long.

The sun continued to move in its ordained path overhead, and the tree shadows changed in length. The baby dragons grew bored with the game the girl had devised. They started scampering back and forth helter-skelter, and she shooed them away from Hiccup as he continued to sleep. She stood, stretched, and walked a short distance away. Soon her axe was flying through the air into tree bark, the throws regular and well-timed. She stopped after a few minutes and replaced the weapon into its sheath on her back. Toothless knew she was capable of practicing for a period ten times longer, but guessed she was saving her energy in case she needed all her skills later.

She sat down cross-legged next to Hiccup, opened up her pack and ate some more food. She studied the prone dragon rider at her side as though trying to make a decision, then sighed and closed the pack again. She leaned forward, head in her hand, knee jiggling. Finally she stretched out on the ground. She whistled softly, and looked at Toothless, and he understood what she wanted without words. He opened his eyes wide and gurgled at her. _It's okay. Go ahead. I'll keep watch. It's what good Alphas do. _The girl lay down and reached her skinny arm over Hiccup as though she thought it were the strong, shielding wing of a dragon. Soon she started to snore.

Toothless chuffed quietly to himself. _You have a fierce bite, even for a human female, but you can't hide your true self from me. I know you'll fight to protect that boy until your last breath. _

00000000

Astrid didn't know how long she had been asleep, but as soon as she woke she knew something was wrong. She jerked upright just in time to see the baby Nadders scuttle past her into a nearby thicket.

"Toothless!" The dragon was crouched at the far edge of the forest glade. His ears were back and he was growling, so low she could barely hear it. She saw irregular flashes of red leather as his tail twitched back and forth.

Hiccup woke and turned his head toward her. "Astrid?" he said weakly. He started to pull himself up to sit.

"Stay down!" Astrid hissed, and pulled her knife from its hiding place in her boot. She knew Hiccup had one in the sheath on his arm, but hers was far more—effective. "Take this, and keep quiet." She rolled nimbly to her feet, grabbed the flame sword from where it lay on the ground and shoved it into her belt. She unholstered her axe and crept forward until she was beside Toothless. The dragon's eyes were narrowed and his pupils had disappeared to mere slits. His nostrils flared and closed in agitation.

Astrid's heart thudded and she tried to breathe as quietly as possible. She stayed in her ready position for what felt like an eon, but she heard nothing, not even the chirping of birds. Toothless was overreacting to something, she decided—she started to relax, to stand up—

There was a flash of black and purple, and Toothless was rolling on the forest floor grappling with something huge and clawed and dreadful.

"_Look out!_" Astrid screamed at Hiccup, just in time for him to twist to the side and avoid the cacophony of limbs and teeth and wings as it crashed into the large boulder. She didn't recognize the monster; no drawing in the Book of Dragons could capture the sheer dark ferocity of the thing as it tried its best to rip at Toothless with its—

She knew what it was. She had heard one of the villagers describe its attack when she was small, and she had never forgotten the sense of sick horror that had haunted her sleep later that night. The spikes on the head and tail, the long, sharp pointer claws…it was a Skullion. The species was vicious and its members preferred to slash the Achilles tendon before eating their prey alive.

Toothless was managing to maneuver his attacker back toward the edge of the glade, away from Hiccup, who was on his hands and knees, staring in helpless terror. Astrid didn't want to be anywhere near the snarling mass, but she couldn't let the thing work its evil on Toothless. She didn't know if he had ever seen one before or if he knew what it could do, or if he could stave off the ghastly pointer claws...

She took three steps forward—her hand found the correct position on her axe handle. The monster was on top of Toothless now, its back to her. She might just have a chance.

_Now. _

Reflexes born of years of training and gut instinct kicked in. She drew back her arm and threw.

"_Astrid!"_

Before she could see her weapon hit its mark, Hiccup's sharp yell whipped her head to the right. There was another Skullion at the opposite edge of the clearing, tensed and about to strike. She almost choked in panic, thinking she was weaponless, then she swiped Hiccup's flame sword from her belt. Its heat pushed on her face and blurred her vision slightly as she ignited the blade.

_Oh, gods, protect him, I can't get there in time. _Still, she started to run; she could at least try to throw the sword, even if she didn't understand its weight, it might still do enough damage to—

The second Skullion snorted; it lacked functional eyes and ears, but it could smell Hiccup where he knelt nearly defenseless on the ground. It leapt into the air—

-and came crashing down, just six feet away from him, with the knife that she had given him buried in its heart. It groaned and twitched. A flurry of Nadder spikes came out of nowhere to stick in its hide and it convulsed once more before growing still.

Wings flapped loudly above her. She shrieked and stepped back, holding the flaming blade in front of her face.

"It's us!" A familiar accented voice came from the sky. "Put that thing down before you hurt somebody!"

Astrid's face opened in surprise as the late chief's Rumblehorn, Skullcrusher, landed in the glade, Eret son of Eret on his back. She looked up through the trees, and saw Valka on Cloudjumper and a riderless Stormfly hovering above.

There wasn't enough room in the glade for all three dragons to descend safely—"We'll land on the cliff close by," Valka called, and they flapped off.

"Are you all right?" asked Eret, dismounting Skullcrusher. "Shut that off already!"

Astrid stared at the flame sword, realizing it was still alight in her hand. She found the thumb switch and the blade shot back into the hilt. She looked back to where Toothless had been fighting the first Skullion. The Night Fury was growling at the carcass still, but Astrid's axe had flown true. It had struck the monster in the back of the neck, severing its spinal cord.

She let out a long, shaky breath, bent over and rested her hands on her knees. "We're fine…" she turned her face toward Hiccup.

Her husband was up on one knee, panting for air, his left arm that had thrown the knife hanging limply beside his supporting leg. The other arm was gripped around his midsection.

"You just missed the party," he said to Eret. He took in two more shallow breaths before the whites of his eyes appeared and he collapsed sideways in a dead faint.

**Epilogue**

The trip back to Berk was mercifully uneventful. Before they left Itchy Armpit, Hiccup was checked over quickly by Eret and Valka while Astrid and Toothless kept a nervous watch for more Skullions. The Night Fury had sustained some scratches and a bite to the shoulder but was otherwise unharmed.

"I'd give a pretty penny to know how those malicious buggers got here," Eret remarked. He started to unbuckle Hiccup's chest armor and detach the haphazardly re-folded wings. Astrid had tied them up surreptitiously during one of his earlier naps to get them out of the way, wincing as she had noted each rip and tear. "I thought they were all confined to a single island, in a completely different neck of the woods, as it were."

"Well," Astrid replied, staring into the trees, "we already know there are people who sail around with captured dragons on their boats, now, don't we?"

She turned just in time to see Eret pull out a sharp knife.

"What are you doing?" she cried.

"I've undone all the laces I can. It'll be hard to get the rest of it off of him without his cooperation, and I don't want to risk hurting him further. We don't have much time; there's another storm coming. I can make cuts just here, and here, and open it right up."

"No," Astrid begged, ignoring the fact that she had not half a day earlier told Hiccup just how much she hated the selfsame wingsuit that Eret was now proposing to destroy. "Do you know how hard he worked to shape that leather just right? He'll be devastated."

Valka came to her aid—_I take back everything I said about you, _Astrid said to herself out of impulsive gratitude_—_pointing out a way she could lift her son so that Eret could tug the suit off without much twisting or pushing.

"He's got some scrapes and bumps, for sure," said Eret afterward, and lifted the thin undershirt Hiccup wore under the leather to prevent chafing. "Looks like he rebroke that rib, and then some."

"Check his back," said Astrid. "Carefully."

Valka swore in a dragon dialect Astrid had never heard before. "Look at that line of bruises. What do you suppose…"

"His back fin," she said. "It didn't open, and it's folded up tight and hard when it's not deployed. A tree branch, or a rock, in the wrong place, and…" she didn't need to elaborate further.

There was a squeak from the thicket, and the Nadder babies reappeared. Eret startled to a combat stance, knife in his hand, but Valka grabbed his arm. Astrid explained where they had come from and her plan to have Stormfly foster them. Valka nodded her approval.

Stormfly eyed the hatchlings suspiciously, but Astrid's scent had rubbed off on them while she had trained them to play fetch. She cocked her head and gave Astrid a look that said _You'll pay for this in chicken, later_, and proceeded to regurgitate some of the fish she'd eaten on the way over.

Finally they were done and ready to go. Hiccup was wrapped in a blanket and placed in a large leather sling for Cloudjumper to carry—it was, appropriately, one of his own recent inventions. Skullcrusher lifted off first, with Toothless, grasping the Night Fury gently in his claws. The black dragon put up with it; he had no choice, but he looked both pissed off and regretful at the necessity. Astrid suspected that once Hiccup was recovered, she'd find him in the forge again, making another tail fin that would give his friend the capacity for independent flight.

Astrid caressed Hiccup's unconscious face one last time as Valka attached the sling. The woman once described by her son as a _crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady _looked at the young man's new wife with concern. The girl was still covered in mud and her eyes held a tired, haunted look.

"Are you okay, lass?" she asked.

"Yes," said Astrid. "I'm fine. _We're _fine." _In more ways than one._

"You saved his life, you know," said Valka.

"It comes with the territory, where Hiccup's concerned," Astrid replied. "An 'occupational hazard,'" she said in Stoick's thick brogue, "to quote the person who probably loved him more than anyone."

She looked around the small clearing, taking in the sight of the disturbed forest floor and the bodies of the two dead Skullions.

"Let's get out of here," she said, and handed one of the Nadder babies to Valka. She took the other in her arm and climbed on Stormfly. "I'm not sure I ever want to see this place again."

0000000

Hiccup opened his eyes gradually, squinting as he was blinded by the light coming in through the window shutters. _I really need to talk to Astrid about moving the bed back. Her judgment when it comes to furniture arrangement is about as awful as her taste in drinks._

Speaking of which, why did his mouth taste so awful? He hadn't had anything to drink in…how long?

_Wait. What day is it. What time is it?_

He tried to sit up, and moaned as his underused muscles protested. His torso was wrapped still, and it looked like there were even more bandages than the last time he'd checked.

Astrid stirred next to him. Her blue eyes opened and she smiled at him groggily.

"Hey, stranger. What's a cute fellow like you doing in a place like this?" She shifted, stretched and pushed back the covers, and Hiccup's mind went blank as he saw that she was wearing only underpants and her breast wrappings.

"Water?" he croaked.

She sat up quickly, slapping her own cheeks to wake herself. "Sorry." She got up and poured him some from the pitcher on the bedside table. "Had this ready for when you woke up. I figured you might want it, considering how long you were out."

Hiccup sipped the water, feeling grateful as it went down his parched throat.

"And how long was that?"

Astrid's eyes glanced to the floor. "Five days. You woke up a few times, but you probably don't remember."

"Five days_? _I wasn't that badly hurt, was I?"

Astrid didn't answer, but the tightness that appeared in her jaw told him what he wanted to know.

She leaned around to check the bruises on his back. "Those have faded quite a bit. Do you want to try getting up? There's food downstairs."

He shook his head. "In a little while, maybe. Right now I'm just happy not to be lying in a crumpled mess on Itchy Armpit."

"I saved your wingsuit," Astrid said. "Eret wanted to cut it off you, but I got them to find another way."

Hiccup half-grinned at her. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you."

"You bet." She lay back down next to him on the bed and stretched langorously, lifting her breasts and spreading her legs. Hiccup blushed. He still wasn't used to seeing her like this, and he was having difficulty accepting the fact that the fierce girl who kept away male attention at axepoint would even allow it.

"You're beautiful," he said. She rolled over to her side, pinning him down with her bare leg like she'd done after they'd first made love.

"I know," she replied. Her hand came up in front of her face; she twisted the pretty silver wedding ring around and around with her fingers.

"We are okay, right? You're sure you don't want this back?" She angled her head up to look at him, a nervous, questioning expression on her face.

Her lips were pink, her eyes were blue like the seas of Berk…and her loose bangs were falling into her face like they needed a trim. He swept them to the side gently, kissed her forehead and then took her hand and pushed the ring firmly to the base of her finger.

"I'm sure that I don't," he said. "Really, very, extra sure. I made it for you. You know how stubborn I am; would I really take back a thing like that?"

She snuggled into him contentedly. Hiccup leaned his face into her hair, breathing in its _Astrid_ scent, listening to the Terrible Terrors trill and warble outside.

"Just," he said, "let me know right away, the next time you decide to betray our secrets to crazy dragon-trapping megalomaniacs."

She kicked his lower leg, the good one, in response.

"Ow. I need that. I'll be headed out soon, there's still tons of stuff to get done around here—"

"No, there isn't," Astrid mumbled into his upper chest. She pinched a fold of skin over his pectoral muscle with her lips, a bit painfully.

He pulled back. "What do you mean?"

"I got us another week off. No one will bother us, unless we want them to."

Hiccup inspected her face warily. "What did you do to secure it? Spitelout still has all of his body parts, right?"

He yelped as her hand went down his trousers, and he wilted back into the pillows as she began to stroke him with the dexterity he had long suspected she possessed.

"I promised them we'd make a future heir of Berk," she said. "We really owe it to them, you know, especially if you're going to keep pulling stunts like this last one."

"I suppose…"

"They'd prefer two heirs, actually."

"They…they would?"

"I think we should give them at least three."

_Oh, man… _

"Whatever you say, milady."

"Good answer, chief. Now kiss me."

**~The End…?~**

_A/N: Thanks, y'all, for reading all the way to the end (you did, didn't you? It looks like people have been skipping Chapter 4, which is kinda weird….) _

_If this is your first time reading this fic, please let me know how I did. __Seriously__. If you liked it, I want to know why. If not, I want to know why too. Just be thoughtful in the con-crit. Do it in a PM if you want, whatever floats your boat. I don't bite. If you've come back to view my work multiple times, which I know people have, I'm incredibly flattered. :-)_

_I'm working on another fic right now, placed three years before this one and loosely incorporating elements from the tv series. It's going to explore how Hiccup and Astrid might go "official" and will probably be heavy on the h/c. If that's your thing, if you like my approach to writing and are a close and serious reader, I might want your help. Let me know if you're interested in seeing drafts._

_Love, Freya_


End file.
